Work Text:
[Elaine Loche]
Elaine Locke
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Rank: Destroyer Captain, junior admiral, Tartorus fleet.
Status: Active duty, lightning raid in the Stellar Nursery.
Ship: destroyer class, The Cerberus ascendant
[Begin log]
Elaine watched the displays of her ship and pointed towards a spot that held an enemy outpost. Far enough from the civilian population to avoid unnecessary casualties. She quickly ordered her mechanized troops to hold their position and let the walker tanks throw a few rounds into the camp to soften up the resistance.
The Valdari, not mankind's first intergalactic dance partner, were some of the most advanced and powerful military forces that humanity had ever seen. Elaine respected them for their way of war. They believed that war was only for the warriors and left human civilians unharmed. The war with the Valdari had begun nearly thirty years ago now in an event known as the first contact massacre, nobody's proudest moment there. They had fought since then, the Valdari slowly but steadily pushing back the Teran forces into a stalemate, but one that set humanity on the back foot. Yes, Elaine respected her enemy, but that respect didn't stop her from hitting the Valdari compound with an orbital strike.
"Let's pack up, we need to take this sector and then meet up with the chimera fleet, treds up in-" she flashed her eyes to the tactical display as it began to chime for her staff's attention.
With a small jingle, the holographic form of a man appeared before all of them. A white-haired man with a square jaw and a brutally unattractive face, General Overvitch, High comander of the Teran Stellar Navy.
"Men and women of the Teran Aliance, I have news. I won't mince words, so bare with me on this," the man took a long deep breath before he continued, "it's over.... the war, all teran forces are hearby ordered to stand down and return to their port of origin. Through negotiations with the enemy, an agreement for a peace treaty has been put forward by the Valdari and ratified by the Teran command. All hostilities towards Teran and Valdari forces will cease."
The man's weary face broke into a grin as he looked around, "we fought this war to a stand still, our bravery in the face of any odds was seen by the enemy and they found respect in us. Ladies and gentlemen of all Teran armed forces, we did it. We kept our homes and families safe. BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN ARMS! WE SURVIVED! and now it's time for all of you to come home. We need our heroes here for us to rebuild"
The hologram stood straight at attention and saluted to them all, and just like that, the universe changed.
[One week later]
Elaine looked down at her enemy, at the dark, inhuman eyes that locked with hers as she attempted to trick them into releasing her objective. All of her training, her wartime experience. Everything that made her Elaine "the ferry woman" locke into this one battle.
"What's that over their?!" She pointed, and her enemy turned with the utmost in stupidity and excitement. Elaine grinned with pride at her tactical genius. She pulled her slipper away from the family dog, Mya.
In the time since the peace treaty between the Valdari and human race, Elaine had found herself home for the first time in five years. She had still been living with her parents when she had been drafted into the Stellar Navy, so she didn't have a place of her own yet, but her parents were happy to help.
"Elaine," her mother called from the kitchen, "Come get some dinner, I don't want my daughter waisting away because the Navy couldn't cook as good as me."
Elains mother was a retired field medic, having served before the Valdari conflict had begun when humans were content enough to kill each other. Elaine knew better than to argue with a home cooked dinner. She rushed down the steps, sliding into her regular seat next to her younger brother and sister. The twins Jim and Sarah were only twelve now, and they looked up to Elaine like she were some type of superhero.
Her mother had cooked a giant bowl of spaghetti, homemade meatballs, and breadsticks. Elaine sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the gods of delicious food. They were certainly doing good work.
Everything felt perfect, like she had never left for war, like she hadn't lost five years of her life to the endless fighting and void battles. Like she hadn't lost parts of herself when the worst of the worst came for her, when even her Destroyer class star ship wasn't enough to keep the mosters away. But at home, there were no monsters. All that was here was warmth and love.
"So now that you're back, when are you gonna settle down with a nice guy?" Her father asked jokingly. He was a shorter man, hard faced with an impressive grey mustache covering his lip like an odd alien larva. Elaine rolled her eyes at that comment. If her parents knew her at all, they knew that wasn't in the cards for her.
"I've been here all of a week, and you're already trying to sell me for a dowry?" Elaine scoffed with no malice in her words.
"I'd say you're worth two goats, maybe a cow and a half," her father dropped his eyes to his food and grinned in satisfaction, "best pasta in the sector."
They ate in a mix of conversation and short but comfortable silences. Elaine beamed at every opertunity, this was what she had missed her entire military career. What she would soon come to miss even more. The family thankful didn't talk about the war. They were all still trying to wrap their heads around the face that the three decade long fight had ended so abruptly.
All too soon, the day dragged forward to night, the twins were sent to bed, and Elaine was left to lay awake and think. Her mind drifted to her ship, to the thrill of jumping through warp travel. She hoped she would still have a place in command of something like the Cerberus Ascendant. Oddly enough, she missed the constant hum of the ships engines, the rumble that she always seemed to feel at her back when she slept. The silence of her room was almost too much for her to bear.
With great effort, Elaine forced herself into a fit full sleep. She had never slept well anywhere, constantly being awoken by the smallest things. Small things like the almost imperceptible squeak of her open window.....wait, open? Hadn't she closed them earlier? Her mind was still deep enough in sleep that the subtle feelings were slow and groggy. She started to settle back down until her mind was fully jolted awake by the sound of the floorboards creaking under a substantial weight.
Elaine bolted to her feet, her hand reaching under her pillow to the combat knife she had had stashed there since she was twelve. She never even had time to reach for it as a large taloned hand wrapped around her face and lifted her kicking off the ground. She could barely see her attacker, but she knew what the hell it was, a Valdari.
This one was different from the gold and white armored foot soldiers that she usually dealt with, they had on a form fitting grey suit with a long dark red cloak flowing from their wide shoulders, standing in the ballpark of Seven feet tall. The mask that encompassed its head was also different, featureless, and a reflective silver.
Elaine fought with all the power her small frame could muster, she was short and stringy but not weak by human standards, the valdari however were physically on a another level, trained marries wor power armor to match the bastards while the Valdari seemed to relish in what was essentially fist fighting a tank.
Elaine never stood a chance, she watched helplessly as the alien slowly grabbed a small device and placed in against the side of her throat. She didn't feel a needle, didn't feel anything, really. Her eyes grew heavy, breathing unnaturally relaxed as she felt her mind haze over and darken.
"⌇⌰⟒⟒⌿ ⊑⎍⋔⏃⋏, ⍀⟒⌇⏁ ⏚⟒⎎⍜⍀⟒ ⊬⍜⎍ ⏃⍀⟒ ⋏⟒⟒⎅⟒⎅ ⏁⍜ ⍀⟟⌇⟒. ⊬⍜⎍ ⏃⍀⟒ ☊⊑⍜⌇⟒⋏ ⏚⊬ ⏁⊑⟒ ⋔⍜⋏⏃⍀☊⊑, ⏁⍜ ⏚⟒ ⏃ ⏚⍀⟟⎅☌⟒ ⏚⟒⏁⍙⟒⟒⋏ ⍜⎍⍀ ⍙⍜⍀⌰⎅ ⏃⋏⎅ ⊬⍜⎍⍀⌇. ⟟⏁ ⟟⌇ ⏃ ☌⍀⟒⏃⏁ ⊑⍜⋏⍜⍀.....⎎⍜⍀ ⊬⍜⎍" the things voice was like a particularly sibilant wind, caring the suns warmth into the cold pits of hell, lovely like a snake covered in glistening scales.
Elaine fought the shutdown of her body with everything she could muster, even sinking her teeth into the aliens hand. She hoped to draw blood but felt her jaw slackening and her mind shutting down.
"⎅⟟⌇☌⎍⌇⏁⟟⋏☌ ☊⍀⟒⏃⏁⎍⍀⟒, ⊬⍜⎍ ⎅⏃⍀⟒? ⏁⊑⏃⏁ ⟟⌇ ⋏⍜⏁ ⎎⍜⍀ ⎍⌇ ⋏⍜⍀ ⟟⌇ ⏁⊑⏃⏁ ⌇⍜⋔⟒⏁⊑⟟⋏☌ ⏃⋏⊬ ⍀⟒⌇⌿⟒☊⏁⏃⏚⌰⟒ ⎐⏃⌰⏃⍀⟟ ⍙⍜⎍⌰⎅ ⎅⍜ ⍙⟟⏁⊑ ⊬⍜⎍ ☊⍀⟒⏃⏁⎍⍀⟒." The Valdari's voice took on a harsher tone as it dropped her to Elaine's limp body back onto the bed. Elaine tried to speak, to scream for her parents, her siblings, anyone to come help her.
She couldn't move, couldn't think , couldn't speak. She felt her eyelids being drawn down to meet the others. She wouldn't remember that night, wouldn't remember being taken from her home, wouldn't remember the ship. A blessing she would later find.
[A little project I'm working on, inspired slightly by a fiction called "they push us together (somehow we stuck) on ao3, just the idea of an arranged sci-fi marriage, I changed up a hell of a lot however. Also slightly inspired by the starcraft games but really only in the Valdari designs, but those are also very different. Please let me know your thoughts and ideas.]